Staff Scrabble Challenge

I follow the “Staff Appreciation and Motivation” principal group on Facebook. It has been a fantastic resource for ideas and inspiration for building culture and community in my school. Earlier this spring, I came across the idea of a Staff Scrabble Challenge and wanted to make it happen. Well, who knew that April 13, 2018 is National Scrabble Day. It was perfect timing of coming back from spring break! This simple and fun activity is easy to plan and builds community and positive culture with staff.

I used Canva.Com to create the graphic above with directions. I printed off the scrabble letters below. I made enough so that each staff member had 2-3 letters. I simply placed the letters with the directions in staff mailboxes and sent an email encouraging the games to begin! As staff submitted pictures via text or email, I kept a spreadsheet to tally their points. Staff earn points individually for each group word they submitted. Staff with the highest number of points earn incentives and prizes that range from gift cards to jeans days or classroom books. Scrabble letters

This can be done over the course of a few days or during the allotted time of a staff meeting. Other ideas to tweak the process could include:

Focusing the words on a particular school goal or initiative. For example, only create words related to math instruction or technology integration.

Using FlipGrid, PadLet, or other medium to have staff submit and collect their responses digitally.

Asking staff to come up with words related to book characters or book titles.

Getting credit through tweets to a school hashtag

Including students or community members for bonus points

Benefits of the Challenge include:

Positive Staff Culture Building

Cross-Curricular Collaboration and Communication

Staff connections and team building

Problem-solving

Creativity

Can be accomplished within time constraints and when staff has open time

Can be be aligned to school goals and altered to meet building needs or initiatives